Friday

You can pay up front
or you can run a tab
play it by ear over fourteen beers
and stumble outside for a cab.
Cause this is your youth
or at least it was.
This is what you did when you were 26
this is what you do as adults.

Cold Case

a cop show
character
shared my first name
he was the suspect
but he had been framed
but in the show
he didn't seem to care
if he went away
if it wasn't fair
and then at the end
they figured it out
I wasn't the killer
there was no doubt
but the guy on the show
not happy or sad
some stupid adventure
not good or bad
I turned off the box
and lay on the bed
and thought of adventures
and where they had led
what good they'd done
and then I slept.

Quarter

The trip down the strip
on a Friday night
stray dog sniffing garbage cans.
Fixed his gaze but he lost his sight,
makes his way with his hands.
It made sense to him at some point.
It doesn't anymore.
He wants to make it work
the way it worked before.

A walk by the docks
when the workday's done
the river's pretty by the moon.
And if his soul is what the workday wants
she will have it soon.
He'd like to try again, knowing what he knows
You go around once
I guess that's how it goes.

The trip down the strip
on a Friday night.
I'm always walking home.
Do what you want, you didn't do it right
you're better off alone.

doesn't matter

Like a dream when you wake up
and the dream goes away.
Before you forget
or before you remember
and hope drains out of the day.

Like something you thought of,
but didn't think to say.
Of course it was nothing
but still feels like something,
like some dropped line in a play.

The time that you spoke up
but didn't get your way.
Say what you want,
you made your point
but that doesn't make it okay.